Clinical laboratories employ a variety of instrumentation systems for the analysis of patient samples. Frequently, three types of instruments are used to analyze particularly significant properties of fresh blood for diagnosis of respiratory-pulmonary ailments. These instruments are:
1. pH/blood gas instruments - measures blood pH, pCO.sub.2 and pO.sub.2.
2. Co-oximeter instruments - measures total hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin.
3. ISE Electrolyte instruments - measures electrolyte (such as sodium, potassium, lithium and calcium) content of blood.
It is common practice to employ control solutions for verifying the accuracy and reliability of these instrumentation systems. A different control solution is used for each instrument. For example, a separate and distinct control solution is used to test the blood gas analyzer. A separate and distinct control solution is used to test the co-oximeter and a third separate and distinct solution is needed to test the ion analyzer. In other words, most pH/blood gas control materials serve as controls only for pH, pCO.sub.2 and pO.sub.2. One of the blood gas controls that is formulated with stabilized red blood cells does provide control values for total hemoglobin and the other hemoglobin fractions but not for electrolyte vlaues.
Controls for hemoglobin fractions for use with co-oximetry instrumentation systems do not provide parameters for use as controls with pH/blood gas analyzers or for ISE electrolyte analyzers. Similarly, controls for ISE instrumentation are not useable for either pH/blood gas or co-oximetry instruments (in addition, some controls contain preservatives or other ingredients which make the material unsuitable for use in another type of instrument).